The letter stated that police were notified and were conducting daily patrols in the area, and reminded residents that their children should not be out alone at night. The apartment complex has a 10 p.m. curfew for children.

Donna Arnold, who lives in the complex, told Fox Carolina she called the Greenville County Sheriff's Office after her son and others reported seeing a clown behind the basketball court.

“I thought my child was seeing things," she told the television station. "And then the next day I had about 30 kids come up to me and say, ‘Did you see the clown in the woods?”

Authorities told Fox Carolina they were called to the complex after residents reported seeing "a suspicious character, dressed in circus clown attire and white face paint, enticing kids to follow him/her into the woods."

Another resident of the complex also reported seeing a "large-figured clown with a blinking nose" standing under a streetlight near the trash dumpsters.

Deputies spoke with children, who told them the clown tried to "persuade them into the woods further by displaying large amounts of money."

Community activist Bruce Wilson told the television station he is getting involved at the apartments to make sure children are safe, even if the sightings turn out to be harmless.

"We have about two to three hundred children out here," Wilson said. "I want to make sure that law enforcement is doing the right thing."